How to Change Someone’s Behavior

Summary

• If you want to be a better teacher, learn to understand feedback timings and their effects.
• Think about drinking: you drink, feel good, but the hangover comes later. The feel-good part makes you likely to drink again.
• This same delay in feedback happens with many workplace behaviors.
• Employees might come in late because a past boss didn’t enforce punctuality.
• Your employees are acting based on past training, whether by you or their former bosses.
• If you want to change their behavior, you need to improve your teaching skills.
• When you see a behavior you like, such as someone clocking in early, reinforce it immediately.
• Reinforcing positive behaviors continuously reduces the likelihood of the unwanted behaviors continuing.

Video

How To Take Action

Suggestions for Implementing Lessons from the Transcript

Understand Feedback Timings and Effects:

• I would suggest that small business owners and entrepreneurs start by paying close attention to their feedback timings. Just like drinking has an immediate feel-good effect and a delayed hangover, employee behaviors are influenced by delayed feedback. Recognize that actions like lateness might be due to previous lenient bosses and not necessarily your current practices.

Immediate Reinforcement:

• When you see a positive behavior, such as an employee coming in early, reinforce it immediately. A good way to do this is to give a small compliment like, “Great job coming in early!” or “I appreciate your punctuality.” This makes the desired behavior more likely to happen again.

Consistency in Positive Reinforcement:

• Continuously reinforce good behaviors. This can be done with simple, low-cost methods such as verbal praise, small rewards, or public acknowledgment during team meetings. Over time, consistent positive reinforcement will make unwanted behaviors less frequent.

Focus on Past Training:

• Understand that your employees’ behaviors are shaped by their past experiences with other bosses. If you're experiencing issues, it might be helpful to have a one-on-one conversation to understand where these habits come from and then work on retraining them with the behaviors you want to see.

Low-Cost High-Value Actions:

• Implementing these strategies doesn’t require a significant monetary investment or a lot of time. Simple acknowledgments and consistent reinforcement can be powerful tools. This high-value approach focuses on the small but meaningful actions that create a positive work environment and drive desired outcomes.

By taking these steps, small businesses and entrepreneurs can enhance their teaching skills, create a more positive workplace, and see better adherence to desired behaviors.

Full Transcript

if you want to become a better teacher learn this right now anybody ever had a terrible hangover after drinking but still drink again if you don't raise your hand you're lying this is because the closest feedback to drinking the first next thing that happens is you feel good The Hangover happens later at a delay the fact that it was at a delay makes it more likely that you will drink again there are endless behaviors like this in the workplace somebody comes in late to work their last boss was never around so it didn't matter anyways if they were late you're employees are doing what they have been trained to do whether that is by you or their past boss and if you have failed to change their behavior you are likely not a skilled enough teacher when you spot a behavior that you want more of let's say it's clocking in early you want to immediately reinforce that behavior what you guys need to understand is that if you reinforce enough of the behaviors that you want more of the things that you don't want to have happen eventually they will have no energy left to do those things